Edinburgh concerts: When Rock Choir rocked the Usher Hall

Many famous faces have played Scotland's only five star concert hall since it opened in 1914 including Ella Fitzgerald, The Rolling Stones, Johnny Cash, and Led Zeppelin.

But as magnificent as those gigs will have been I'm not sure anything can match what 400 Rock Choir members and their friends and families experienced in the Usher Hall on Saturday night. We're all still buzzing.

In celebration of her 15 years leading Rock Choir in Scotland Elaine Williamson coached her amateur singers to put on the performance of a lifetime in a beautiful venue, renowned for its excellent acoustics.

I mean this was big for us. We're more normally to be found singing for runners at the Edinburgh Marathon, or in John Lewis Glasgow, raising money for the Beatson Institute. You might have seen us on the steps of The Dome at Christmastime.

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We don't normally have access to a dressing room. For many outdoor performances we store our bags at our feet, like penguins.

From the instantly recognisable guitar riff of Guns N' Roses Sweet Child O' Mine which opened the show to the infectious 80s film theme to Flashdance (What a Feeling) which was the finale, we rocked, bopped, swayed and clicked our way through a two hour repertoire of Rock Choir's finest tunes.

With choir members from Kirkintilloch, Glasgow West AM, Glasgow West PM, Edinburgh West Afternoon and Edinburgh Morningside Evening making up the performers, this was classic Rock Choir ambition achieved.

Most of us don't read music. We love to sing but we have had no formal training. But we want to do Elaine proud so we rehearse our different harmony parts from soprano, upper alto, lower alto to bass and practise hard.

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We download the dance moves and work til we get it right. Along the way there is a lot of laughter, new friendships are formed and it's basically pure joy to be involved. See exhibit A - the video of us performing I Don't Wanna Miss a Thing by Aerosmith last Saturday.

If you missed this gig we're going head to head with another pair of 90s icons when Oasis play Murrayfield next month and we sing on the Fringe. (We have a sense of humour, we're learning a Rock Choir arrangement of Roll With It).

And if the celebratory, life-enhancing spirit of the Rockies at the height of their powers has inspired you to get involved? See www.rockchoir.com for a choir near you. I promise, you won't regret it.